The Mural Society

Address
 
The Mural Society
P.O. Box 336
Lake Placid, Fl. 33862

Phone (863) 531-0211

A few words from Bob & Harriet Porter co-founders of the Lake Placid Mural Society

LAKE PLACID, FLORIDA

THE TOWN WITH HISTORY ALL AROUND

            Lake Placid, Florida, located in the rolling hills at the southern tip of the Lake Wales Ridge, in central Florida, just off route 27, is known as the “Town With History All Around”.  It is home to a beautiful outdoor mural art gallery.  In 1995, Lake Placid, "The Town of Murals" and the mural program won the honor, “Florida’s Outstanding Rural Community of the Year”. 

            Thousands of tourists visit each year to walk through the town and view the fourty-three larger than life murals, all of which tell the story of the town’s history.  With the aid of a color mural tour book, visitors search for the hidden items that appear in most of the murals.  Start your tour at the Welcome Center/Chamber of Commerce on Oak Street and view the original mural art.

            Lake Placid is home to 27 beautiful fresh water lakes and the big bass, which appears to be jumping off the wall in the “Bassin” mural, is just a sample of the fish waiting for the avid fisherman.  This mural won first place in an international Airbrush Magazine competition.  Near the “Bassin” mural you will find one of seventeen unique one of a kind trash containers.  They are all companion pieces to the murals and the little fishing shack invites you to deposit your “old bate and used tackle”.  Take a thrilling ride on an Airboat.  See the marshland of Lake Istokpoga, Lake Placid’s largest lake.  Further up the street listen and you will hear a bear growling and bees buzzing.  At one time Lake Placid was the best bear hunting territory in the country and you will see a mother bear looking for her “Lost Bear Cub”.  A short walk and you will meet “Captain Webb”, owner of Lake Placid’s first gas station and one of the first Caladium growers who helped make Lake Placid the “Caladium Capitol of the World”.  In addition to this he started the Golden Gloves Boxing Club in town and you can view two of the town’s residents in a heated boxing match during the “Thursday night fights”.  Watch out at the “Train Depot” where you will hear the steam train and see the flashing lights.

            Listen to the sound of the cattle drive as the cowmen shout, the cattle moo and thunder roars at the “Cracker Trail Cattle Drive”.  Meet many of the town’s prominent citizens of the past such as Dr. Melvil Dewey, of Dewey Decimal System fame, Walter Coachman, Chairman of the Board, Consolidated Naval Stores Company, which was a leader in the Turpentine industry, and our first telephone operator, Florence Booker.  Learn about the little ten-year-old boy who sounded the alarm at the “Bank Robbery” in 1931.  View the many endangered animals and birds in the area.
          Meet Annie Hill, nurse mid-wife, who attended the birth of over 1,500 children in Lake Placid.  The mural "Decades of Green Dragons" introduces you to the first basketball team in Lake Placid, and the boy who named them.  There are 140 pieces of art introduced into the town since 1992.  This includes 29,879 sq ft of painted murals. 

            These are just a few of the entertaining and informative adventures that await you in Lake Placid, Florida, “THE TOWN OF MURALS”, “THE TOWN WITH HISTORY ALL AROUND”, “THE CALADIUM CAPITOL OF THE WORLD”, AND FLORIDA’S LAKE COUNTRY.